How do sea salts differ from table salt?
What is this research about?
High amounts of salt or sodium in the diet can
increase the risk of developing high blood
pressure and heart disease. To reduce the
amount of sodium in food, sea salts are often
used to replace sodium chloride, or table salt.
The purpose of this research was to compare
the properties of different sea salts with table
salt and to determine if sea salts are a suitable
solution to reduce the salt content of foods.
What did the researchers do?
Lisa Duizer, Assistant Professor in the
Department of Food Science, compared
7 different kinds of sea salt to standard
table salt. All salts were available commercially. Each salt was profiled to determine sodium content, size of salt
crystals, moisture content, speed at
which the salt dissolved in artificial saliva, and the intensity of the salt taste.
The salt taste was determined by a
trained sensory panel which included
12 individuals who were trained to rate
the degree of saltiness over time.
What you need to know:
The sodium content of the sea salts
was similar to that of table salt. The
size of the salt crystals affected many
different sensory measures, including
the onset of salty taste and how long it
lasted. Substituting sea salt with table
salt may not be the best way to reduce
sodium in foods.
How can you use this research?
Health professionals can use this research to educate consumers about the
sodium content of table and sea salts.
Industry can use this research to guide
product development and ensure that
sodium reduction strategies are effective.
Project supported by:
A program of the
OMAFRA-U of G
What did the researchers find?
A bout the researchers:
Dr. Duizer found that there were significant differences in moisture content and
crystal size between the salts. Smaller
crystals dissolved more quickly and
reached the maximum salt taste sooner.
Although sea salts have a different taste
profile compared to table salt, there were
only minor differences in salt taste after
sodium content was controlled for. Furthermore, there were only small differences in the sodium content between the
sea salts and table salt. The researchers
concluded that the sea salts used in the
study were not a suitable option to replace table salt as part of a sodium reduction strategy.
Lisa Duizer, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph. She
is also a Research Scientist with the
Agri-food for Healthy Aging program
at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo
Research Institute for Aging.
Keywords:
Sea salt, table salt, sodium, sodium reduction, sensory, taste, saltiness
Cite this work:
University of Guelph, Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship (2012).
How do sea salts differ from table salt?
Retrieved from:
[email protected]
Article citation:
D. Vella, M. Marcone, L.M. Duizer.
Physical and sensory properties of regional sea salt. Food Research International. 2012:45;415-421.
Clear Language Research Summaries are a project of the Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship (ICES) at the
University of Guelph. Project partners include the Business Development Office
(BDO), SPARK Program at the University
of Guelph, and Knowledge Mobilization
Unit at York University. This project is
part of the Pan-Canadian Research Impact Network. On the Web:
www.csahs.uoguelph.ca/pps/
clear_research
http://hdl.handle.net/10214/3712
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported